"Are you worried you aren't in love with dad?"

"I didn't know he loved me before I died. And now I don't know how to tell the difference between love and--friendship and attraction and gratitude all mixed up together. He deserves better than for me to say, 'okay, I feel the same way' if I'm going to wake up someday less than thirteen years from now and go 'oops, no.'"

She thinks.

"He's - waited my whole life. More, I think. Maybe... I think he likes having you around, even if just - as a friend. But you could tell him you need to straighten out your feelings, too, because you really value him and like him and want him to have you - sure?"

"I don't think dad always knows he deserves better..."

"Ah, well, if he didn't have that problem he might have picked someone better than me to fall in love with." 

"You're my dad, too. A good one. He deserves you, and you deserve him." Because you're both idiots.

"I love you so much," he says, hugging her. "I may not have my feelings for Lan Zhan all figured out but there's no doubt in my heart how much I love you." 

She smiles again, hugging him back. "Thanks, dad. I love you too."

And this is how Lan Wangji finds them, as he steps back into the Jingshi, still damp from the bath but otherwise impeccably put-together. His eyes soften imperceptibly when he sees the two of them together. 

"Hi, Lan Zhan. Can we...talk?"

Yep that's fear going down his spine. "Alright." 

"Okay. So, um...A-Yuan, poke me if I say something dumb?"

"You mean if you open your mouth?"

"A-Yuan, if I don't say anything then we'll never get this sorted out! Use your judgment for what the threshold of dumbness should be." 

"Alright. I'll poke you if you say anything egregiously dumb."

"Thank you." 

Deep breath. 

"Lan Zhan, how did you know you were in love with me?" 

ERROR: LAN WANGJI.EXE HAS FAILED. PLEASE REBOOT. 

"Wei Ying is Wei Ying." 

"That's no help at all!!! Look, I--feelings are hard, okay?" 

"Mn." 

"So I--I'm attracted to you, who wouldn't be, you're the most gorgeous person on the planet, and I've wanted to be your friend for a very long time, and I'm so, so glad that you found A-Yuan and brought her up, and you don't hate me, and--I have so many feelings, Lan Zhan! And I've never been in love with someone before, how would I recognize that feeling among all the others? And I don't--I can't say I love you if I'm not sure. But I--I'm not sure. I could be? I don't know." 

That is not on the list of things he thought Wei Ying might say, ever. 

"When I told you. After Nightless City. You told me to fuck off." 

"...I already said I don't remember that at all, Lan Zhan, but--I really wouldn't trust anything that came out of my mouth at that point, there's--there's a reason I don't remember much from that time, I was not in a great or incredibly lucid frame of mind." 

"...Mn."

"Lan Zhan, I'm sorry." 

"There is no need for you to say 'thank you' or 'I'm sorry' to me," he says, and then he grabs Wei Ying by the collar and kisses him. 

!!! Oh wow okay kissing Lan Zhan is really nice. 

...Also...kind...of...familiar...? 

"Lan Zhan, was that you on Phoenix Mountain!?"